1 Panel 2, Position 3 Jack D. Ripper

2 Article: “Accounting for Variation in Distrust of Local Police” Hypothesis: Individual factors, policing styles and community attributes lead Blacks to be more distrustful of police than Whites Dependent variable: Distrust in police Main independent variables (3 categories) Individual level Gender, race/ethnicity, age Membership in ethnic/civil rights organizations Interest in politics Opinion of ability to influence things

3 Opinion about the effectiveness of the political system Opinions about neighborhoods Trust in neighbors Quality of life Policing-level variables Race/ethnicity of police chief Agency size Amount of violent crime Amount of non-violent crime City-level variable Black majority in city?

4 Data sources SCBS - “Social Capital Benchmark Survey”. National citizen survey conducted in 2000 Telephone interviews of 29,700 persons across the U.S. Questions about criminal justice, crime control and attitudes towards police. Existing data: Data about city crime rates, police forces, etc. came from LEMAS, a national repository of criminal justice data Periodic data collection from 3,000 law enforcement agencies

5 Research design: Non-experimental - everything came from interviews and official sources Sample 7,155 persons (of 29,700 respondents) Resided in 42 communities in 29 states This study includes 7,155 who: Said they were Black or White, Answered the question about distrust in the police Lived in one of 33 cities with a population of at least 50,000.

6 Sampling technique: Subset of national random sample Respondents selected through random digit dialing Because of the sample size, geographical breadth and selection method, findings can be applied to the U.S. as a whole. Unit of analysis: Person Case: One person